604: SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST CHURCH. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



electoral district and 2 in Belgrade, the payment 

 of 45 dinars in taxes giving the right to vote, 

 while candidates must have property on which 

 they pay 200 dinars a year in direct taxes and 

 have the age of forty years. It is the business 

 of the Senate to revise and improve the laws 

 elaborated in the Chamber of Deputies. Special 

 and class tribunals are henceforth forbidden in 

 Servia. For the Chamber of Deputies the elec- 

 toral qualifications are the same as they have 

 been for the Skupshtina under both of the for- 

 mer Constitutions. To be elected one must be 

 thirty years old and pay 00 dinars of taxes. 



On May 10 M. Marinkovich and Lieut.-Col. 

 Vassich resigned from the Cabinet, and the King 

 appointed Prof. Kovatchevich Minister of Public 

 Worship and Education and Col. Yankovich Min- 

 ister of War. This reduced the number of Pro- 

 gressists by half, leaving only half as many of 

 them as there were Radicals. King Alexander 

 and the Servian people were disappointed in their 

 expectation that Queen Draga was about to give 

 birth to a child, the mistake having arisen 

 through an erroneous medical diagnosis. The 

 first elections for the Skupshtina under the new 

 Constitution took place on Aug. 4. The result 

 was a striking victory for the Government and 

 the section of the Radical party supporting it. 

 In a house of 130 members the Ministerialists 

 won 110 seats, 84 of them belonging to Radicals 

 and 26 to Progressists, while the Opposition con- 

 sisted of 14 Independent Radicals and 6 Liberals. 

 The senatorial elections were held on Aug. 18. 

 The elective Senators hold their seats for six 

 years. The Liberals, who were opposed from the 

 beginning to a second chamber, took no part in 

 the voting, and the other parties manifested little 

 interest. Every one of the elected belonged to 

 the ministerial wing of the Radical party. The 

 King had already nominated the life members, 

 taking them from the Radicals of the Vuich and 

 Milovanovich section and from .the Progressists 

 in something like the same proportion in which 

 they were represented in the Cabinet. The Skupsh- 

 tina was opened on Oct. 20. Acts of violence 

 committed 'by Albanians upon the Serbs of Old. 

 Servia were spoken of as regrettable in the speech 

 from the throne and more sharply censured in the 

 address in reply. The Macedonian committee, 

 which had extended its operations to the northern 

 frontiers of Albania, stirred the resentment of the 

 Mohammedans of Novi Bazar, who made no dis- 

 tinction between the different kinds and races of 

 Christians. The local authorities were indulgent 

 toward the Albanian population, which ordina- 

 rily is peaceful and industrious, but who now 

 were discontented with the Turkish Government 

 because instead of the tithes a heavier tax had 

 been imposed requiring an eighth of the produce 

 of the soil and the increase of flocks and herds. 

 Quarrels had also arisen between the Albanians 

 and the Montenegrins inhabiting the Servian 

 frontier. The Porte immediately took energetic 

 measures when the troubles broke out. (See 

 TURKEY.) The Servian Government took no 

 active steps, being anxious to avoid misunder- 

 standings that might arise at such a delicate 

 point of the frontier, but prepared for an emer- 

 gency by preparing to send reenforcements to the 

 frontier guard. 



SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST CHURCH. 

 The statistical reports of this Church made to the 

 General Conference in August, 1901, give the fol- 

 lowing footings: Number of churches, 116, of 

 which 84 made reports; of ministers and mission- 

 ary pastors, 122; of licentiates, 2; of members 

 reported, 9,257; of Sabbath-keeping residents, 10,- 



575; amount of money raised for all purposes, in- 

 cluding personal gifts, $50,409. Of the churches, 

 2 were in England, 1 in Shanghai, China, 2 in 

 Holland, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Germany, and 2 in 

 Africa. Sixty-nine reporting out of the 88 Sab- 

 bath-schools returned 6,354 members, with about 

 $2,291 as the amount of money raised. The Young 

 People's Societies of Christian Endeavor reported 

 2,036 general and 811 junior members, with total 

 contributions of $1,879. The Education Society 

 returned receipts and expenditures of $2,501, a 

 principal account of $6,316, and endowment funds 

 of $43,961. The denominational institutions con- 

 cerning which reports were made include Salem 

 College, Milton College, Wis., Alfred University, 

 N. Y., and the Theological Institution. The 

 Tract Society had received $15,451 and had a 

 permanent fund of $4,400. The society main- 

 tained a publishing house at Plainfield, N. J., and 

 branch offices at Columbus, Ga., Petitcodiac, New 

 Brunswick, and Milton Junction, Wis; published 

 a newspaper and Sunday-school helps; assisted in 

 the publication of a paper at Haarlem, Holland; 

 and was engaged in the publication and circula- 

 tion of tracts. The Missionary Society had re- 

 ceived $15,308, and returned permanent and other 

 funds and property approaching $50,000 in value. 

 Besides local home missions and the special work 

 of evangelists and "student quartets" (76 work- 

 ers in all), it returned 4 missionaries and 11 na- 

 tive helpers at Shanghai, China, 2 native workers 

 on the Gold Coast in Africa, and 2 workers at 

 Haarlem and Rotterdam, Holland. An industrial 

 mission had been opened in Africa by the Sabbath 

 Evangelizing and Industrial Association, which 

 had received $12,259, and had stationed 2 agents 

 at Cholo, British Central Africa. The Woman's 

 Board, formed in 1881, had assisted in the sup- 

 port of missionaries in the work of the Tract 

 Society, and in, the cause of education. 



The Seventh-Day Baptist Memorial fund, ap- 

 plied to educational and benevolent objects, 

 amounted to $325,739. 



The ninety-ninth General Conference met in 

 Alfred, N. Y., Aug. 28. The Rev. Earl P. Saun- 

 ders was chosen president. The Committee on 

 Denominational History reported progress in col- 

 lecting the publications of Seventh-Day Baptist 

 people and supplying them to institutions, and 

 gathering and preserving manuscripts, documents, 

 portraits, etc. In view of the next year being the 

 one hundredth anniversary of the General Con- 

 ference, a special program was prepared for a cen- 

 tennial celebration to be held by the conference 

 meeting at Ashaway, R. I. 



SOUTH AFRICA. With the conquest of the 

 two Boer republics the whole of South Africa 

 becomes British territory excepting the coast re- 

 gions belonging to Portugal in the east and west 

 and the unproductive sphere of Germany in the 

 southwest. British South Africa thus expanded 

 has an area of about 1,000,000 square miles, of 

 which 700,000 square miles are south of the Zam- 

 besi, for the most part already provided with 

 civilized institutions and exceedingly productive, 

 and 300,000 square miles are a promising region 

 of great natural agricultural and mineral wealth 

 extending from the Zambesi northward to the 

 boundaries of German East Africa and the Congo 

 Independent State. The export trade of South 

 Africa in 1898 amounted to 25,730,000, of which 

 20,528,000 stand for minerals. 



Cape Colony. The colony of the Cape of Good 

 Hope has had responsible government since 1872. 

 The legislative power is vested in a Legislative 

 Council of 23 members elected for seven years 

 and a House of Assembly of 95 members elected 



